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Ontario’s Catholic teachers are suspending their drastic work-to-rule plans now that their union has hammered out a tentative deal with the province and school boards.

The agreement, reached around 3 a.m. Tuesday, followed a round-the-clock session that resumed Monday after two days of bargaining last week and comes just days after the province’s public high school teachers negotiated a tentative three-year deal.

Once approved by the council of presidents, details of the deal will go out to teachers on Sept. 2 ahead of a ratification vote on Sept. 17.

“As we got closer and closer and looked at the issues, it became evident that there was a deal to be made — we knew a deal was there and how to get there,” said Ann Hawkins, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, adding negotiators “worked very hard to address the concerns of members and … managed to maintain and defend the issues that were of critical importance to us.”

Both deals still must be ratified by teachers, which will take place after Labour Day.

Education Minister Liz Sandals says the deal with English Catholic teachers is consistent with the province’s “net-zero bargaining framework,” in which any raise must be paid for from funds somewhere else in the contract. (FRANK GUNN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO)

News of the agreement came as the province’s French teachers continue negotiating and as the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario prepares to return Sept. 1.

CUPE, which represents 55,000 support staff — from caretakers to school secretaries — also remains at the bargaining table.

Without a deal by the start of school, the Catholic teachers were going to withdraw from virtually everything outside of teaching time — including no extra help for struggling students, no extracurricular activities or parent-teacher interviews/ meet-the-teacher nights, banning parent volunteers from their classrooms and not putting up bulletin boards in their classrooms.

“I’m very pleased” about the deal, Hawkins also told the Star. “We really appreciate the efforts from the government and the trustee association in getting to this point.”

Like the tentative deal with the high school teachers’ union, this one is said to be “net zero” as the province had promised — meaning any extra costs must be funded by savings.

On Tuesday, Education Minister Liz Sandals refused to say where the money will come from for teacher salary increases but insisted the classroom won’t be affected, including class size.

She said once all the teacher agreements are ratified then maybe more financial information will be released.

Sandals also justified giving the high school teachers’ another paid development day and swept aside questions about parents again having to find daycare for their children should that be a part of elementary teachers’ deals.

“My experience is that parents are very concerned that teachers be well trained,” she said.

Sandals said as a result of the interim agreements reached so far “any job action has been suspended…When students go back to the classroom, the things that were threatened to be withdrawn will carry on.”

In Orillia, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said the tentative agreements are good news for students who are less likely to face labour strife. Local strikes are still possible under the two-tier bargaining system.

“I'm relieved that has been potentially avoided,” said Brown, who remains concerned that the two-tier process set up by the Liberal government resulted in more “brinksmanship” than necessary.

“It didn't make negotiations easier.”

Control over teachers’ prep time was a key issue in the Catholic teachers’ negotiations, and Hawkins said the deal “protects (teachers) as well as the quality of education in our schools.”

Kathy Burtnik, president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’Association, noted “working within the fiscal restraints of the current bargaining framework was challenging, but surmountable with the concerted efforts of all parties.”

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